Friday, 22 December 2006

IT would be a very odd festive season without songs and music. Every shopping trip is accompanied by "Jingle Bells" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". We get Nativity plays in primary school, carol concerts and, for the more energetic, dances and clubbing.

All rely on popular music. Even the Parliament has a big Christmas celebration this week with lots of music and poetry, both secular and spiritual.

But it's the awakening of young minds and voices that's most fun. Along with lots of parents and friends we gathered on a blustery, soaking night in Dunbeath community hall earlier this month to hear the children of Dunbeath and Lybster primary schools sing the chorus numbers of a new production. The book Butcher's Broom by the famous local author Neil M. Gunn is being made into a musical by the Grey Coast Theatre Company. The youngsters' enthusiastic singing was rehearsed in under two weeks. New tunes were composed by accordionist Andy Thorburn to new words by George Gunn.

Between them they created the big chorus parts and are anticipating further developments of the project next year with the storyline from Neil Gunn's characters picked out in song. But will there be funds to let Caithness arts flourish?

Creativity, performance and exhibition space for artistic efforts all cost money. Just like a plumber, you can't get cultural endeavour for nothing. What has to be agreed is that paying to let culture flourish is as important – even more so, some say – as mending burst pipes. It's not an alternative, nor is spending the sums on nurses and doctors. The therapeutic effects of a great performance or exhibition can be an inspiration, a pick-me-up, or just great fun compared to a trip to the chemists. So the recent seminar on Caithness arts sought to ensure that funding from national and local sources finds its way to the Far North.

All this clearing of throats and limbering up of local talent goes on against the backdrop of our Culture Minister, Patricia Ferguson, launching a Culture Bill. For seven years this Lab/Lib government has been consulting on cultural matters. The Culture Commission of 2005 spent a year and £500,000 to make lofty pronouncements with little substance. Now it is down to the wire. They can't consult any more. They will fund the national classical companies directly along with the National Theatre and a new body, Creative Scotland, will merge the middle-aged Scottish Arts Council with the younger Scottish Screen to administer all other art forms and offer cultural entitlements to all.

It remains to be seen if Parliament has time to complete this bill before dissolution in April next year and if the incoming government has other ideas.

*

I WAS asked to say a few words of introduction at the recent and highly successful Scots Trad Music Awards in Fort William. My "unexplained" appearance instead of the Culture Minister, Patricia Ferguson, was requested a day or two beforehand by Hands Up For Trad maestro Simon Thoumire as Ms Ferguson couldn't be present.

I wondered why, especially as news broke a day later that the Minister had authorised a huge debt write-off for two national classical music companies. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra had £1.4 million written off and Scottish Ballet £300,000 to give them a "clean slate". Then I thought on the words of Sheena Wellington, whose singing of "A Man's a Man for a' That" was the electric moment as Parliament opened in Edinburgh in 1999. In Fort William she introduced the Scots Traditional Music Hall of Fame, saying how she applauded every penny of support for folk music from the government but she would still be asking "on her deathbed" for adequate investment.

So I framed an intervention for the next instalment of First Minister's Questions. Alas it wasn't taken. But the gist was a hope that Jack McConnell could assure us of increased investment in the success of contemporary traditional music organisations, such as the highly successful Fèisean nan Gàidheal which was named as Community Project of the Year at the awards in Fort William. They rely largely on hundreds of volunteers to bring on thousands of young musicians, but will they receive as generous funding through Creative Scotland as do the national companies whose debt write-off was authorised once again by this government?

The local equivalent is the Wick Traditional Music Workshop. Are there ever enough funds to back the popularity of playing contemporary music, traditional or otherwise?

*

CAMPAIGNERS are urging MSPs to support Scots language culture by singing "Auld Lang Syne" this Hogmanay. The director of the Scots Language Centre, Michael Hance, has called on MSPs to do more to recognise the cultural value of Scotland's traditional language and dialects. At this time of year, when the whole world is joining in the singing of this Scots language anthem, it is important that MSPs and other revellers should think about the words and where they come from.

As convener of the Cross-Party Group on the Scots Language I hope when MSPs sing "Auld Lang Syne" this New Year's Eve they will stop to think about the lack of official support for Scots. I am calling on the Executive to give Scots dialect speakers an early Christmas present by publishing its languages strategy.

For anyone who struggles to remember the words to "Auld Lang Syne", the Scots Language Resource Centre has made them available on its website at http://www.scotslanguage.com. There's even a karaoke version on this site, so there's no excuse for not joining in.

I'm sure you all deserve a restful seasonal break. Enjoy Christmas and have a peaceful, healthy and successful New Year.

Friday, 8 December 2006

FACING the dangers of modern life, there's a clear difference of perspective between small nations and the self-important world policemen.

Unveiling the worst-kept secret over nuclear rearmament, Tony Blair insists Britain needs the son of Trident.

Here in Scotland, Jack McConnell had previously called for a major debate. He insisted his mind was open. Until this week, that is, when in a belated statement the First Minister complied with orders from London and supported the replacement of Trident. This action shows that Scotland needs a leader, not a follower, and that the Scottish First Minister has simply rolled over for the UK Prime Minister.

It's a dangerous world of double standards. Iran and North Korea can't have them, but the UK and USA must have them. How can any moral argument about international co-operation and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction be conducted successfully? How can the PM pretend that we have an independent nuclear deterrent when he knows through his "special relationship" with America that Britain could never fire these weapons without US say-so?

Plainly, US Middle East policy is turning in desperation towards talk with previously sworn enemies like Syria and Iran because the stability of the region needs all parties on board. That's because the tinderbox that is Iraq will not be doused by the nuclear option, nor will global terrorism and the development of post-oil economies thanks to record purchases of UK, French, German and US armaments by dictatorial governments like the Saudis.

Scotland has the dubious privilege of hosting the UK missile base on the Clyde. The dangers of accidents apart, surely the obvious needs of post-industrial Clydeside are for our share of the £25 billion to replace the 10,000 dependent jobs in and around Faslane with productive, peaceful employment. In Holyrood we always hear Labour members say jobs must not be jeopardised.

But economies change and whole new possibilities open up. Before any decision is made in London, Scots will have the opportunity to vote out son of Trident. Not by voting Lib Dem – they just want to cut the number of missiles by half and postpone the decision by eight years – but by arguing that far too little cash is spent on Scotland's real defence needs. Scrap Trident and save our regiments, I'd say, and help peacemaking and peacekeeping under UN auspices.

*

LAST week a shameful, half-baked decision was taken by Labour and Lib Dem MSPs. They voted for the Bankruptcy and Diligence Bill that would allow, among other things, for the sequestration of a person's home if they were in debt to the tune of £3001 and to set up a Scottish Civil Enforcement Commission, another expensive quango.

Jamie Stone protested that the Enterprise Committee had made "carefully weighed-up deliberations" so that last-minute amendments should be disregarded. Yet the last-minute amendments were backed by Citizens' Advice Scotland, sheriff officers, and even an editorial in The Herald.

If you were a Farepak loser who then splashed out to give the kids their Christmas by taking loans bought from unscrupulous lenders then you could end up in court for debt of sums of less than £3000 but including the interest that then exceeds that sum. In fact, you could lose your house and still have lots of debts to pay in certain circumstances.

Of course, bankrupts lose their property and all other possessions but they then are free from debt. So we have a Lib Dem and Labour government keen to make it easier to cope with bankruptcy but allowing minor debtors to lose out. What is missing is the power to control consumer credit, because that is at present a reserved matter to London. The compelling argument is to control the causes of debt as well as the results here in Scotland.

*

COUNCIL housing remains just that after the sound and fury of the stock transfer debate. After Highland said "no" an overwhelming number in Inverclyde voted for change. There were exceptions here, as Caithness and Skye voted for change but were drowned out by the aggregate.

I have already stated that the main problem is one of trust. Everyone can see that Glasgow Housing Association has not led to secondary transfer to local housing associations. Tenants here did not lead the demand for a better deal. It is Gordon Brown meddling in Scottish services with Jack McConnell and Nicol Stephen's blessings. He promised debt write-off plus bribes to tenants of new bathrooms and more house-building if they voted "yes".

So why did Caithness tenants vote "yes"? I suggest they want change, they can see the need to break the log jam of council control from Inverness, and for a variety of reasons they did not like the opinions of tenants' leaders in Inverness, Ross-shire and Sutherland being foisted on Caithness voters. The result is stalemate.

Affordable homes are the number one priority, but it is clear this government is not prepared to build them. So if you can't be assured of a home, why bother staying if you are young and mobile? Once again the McConnell/Stephen government hasn't the will to meet such crying needs for the future of this part of the country.

WICK Accordion and Fiddle Club was the worthy winner of Club of the Year title at the Scots Trad Music Awards 2006. I shared the club's delight in an audience from all over the country in the Nevis Centre. Let's give them another round of applause; to be precise in Mackay's Hotel, on the third Tuesday of the month, from September to May.

Friday, 24 November 2006

PARLIAMENTARY business has focused on planning law and transport issues recently.

It's a reminder we all must demand a say at the earliest stage if new ideas for housing, businesses and transport upgrades are planned. If not then nasty surprises can force us at a late hour to choose for or against somebody's not-so-bright idea.

MSPs spent a day and a half on the third stage of the Planning Bill. Amendments on third-party rights of appeal, controlling high hedges, multiple occupancy housing and the like were knocked down like skittles by the government majority. Certainly projects of national significance should be given priority treatment to speed them up. But the utmost care is needed as big ideas can disrupt many lives.

Take the Beauly to Denny power line. Giant pylons could carry clean power from our tidal resources in the Pentland Firth. But should they go in undersea cables instead? I predict that's the kind of scheme that will be badly served by the forthcoming but narrowly focused planning enquiry.

With local plans now due to run for five-year terms, there is much more chance to influence where houses should go or how flooding should be tackled. But we have to take part. Before I was elected MSP in 2003 the Ross and Cromarty East Local Plan was being consulted. It is only displayed in its final form in our post offices this month. That just won't do.

*

THIS week we have been debating the first stage of a Transport and Works (Scotland) Bill. It should relieve MSPs of truly marathon sittings in a quasi-judicial role at stage two. For months on end I spent Mondays wading through objection by objection in the Edinburgh Tram (Line One) Bill when objectors and developers slugged it out. A reporter with judicial training can do this part better and free up precious MSP time for helping constituents. They adopted that in England years ago but failed to put it in the 1998 Scotland Act.

Transport plans for the North have also featured strongly. We had a briefing in Parliament from HITRANS on a draft regional transport strategy for the Highlands and Islands. It is out for consultation till January 2007 and will inform the Scottish transport plans for the next ten years with timetables for priorities for our communications network. Allied to this, the Caithness Association of Community Councils had its views on the prospects for rail upgrades and a Dornoch rail link debated by the Public Petitions Committee.

HITRANS and the transport group in the Caithness Socio-Economic Strategy could do with meeting because HITRANS talks of steady population decline in the Far North, as if that was a good reason to do little for our road and rail needs. The Caithness Partnership had other ideas so we must get realistic, costed options submitted before HITRANS runs away and spends a load of money on "higher priorities" around Inverness. In that light I am delighted that the Dornoch Link Action Group has commissioned one of today's leading rail consultants, Corus, to show how the Far North line can be transformed. It will feed the debate with a can-do approach to counter the "managed decline" of the doom merchants.

Talking of which, the Friends of the Far North Line will be holding its AGM in Brora this Saturday, not in Thurso as previously suggested. It makes a change from Inverness and Beauly. But interestingly there is an amendment proposed to the meeting for a constitutional change of AGM dates to May, June or July instead of November. Why? So that members from central Scotland and England can make it to a future AGM in Caithness. As they can't easily do the return journey in a day, they could stay overnight and enjoy a summer's day along the Pentland Firth.

Meanwhile, Brora is just accessible to them but not for a 2.15pm start for arrivals from Caithness. Doesn't that say it all? Wouldn't you think that FoFNL should back a Dornoch rail short cut? But they don't! Wending your way North for four hours from Inverness for a leisurely overnight stay does not meet the needs of all who live in the area and wish to reach all points north of Golspie throughout the year.

I'll be in Brora, all being well, and hope to hear FoFNL president Lord Thurso change the group's tune. Doesn't he also convene the Caithness Partnership that backs the Dornoch crossing? I hope another speaker, Bill Reeve, director of rail delivery from Transport Scotland, will suggest how, for much less cash than the price of the rail link to Edinburgh Airport, all the Highland rail routes can be sorted.

Finally I'll be most interested to hear why the Highland Rail Partnership submission to the Parliament Petitions Committee managed to miss out any mention of the Dornoch crossing in its submission, as the HRP full-time officer Frank Roach will give a brief account of current rail developments to FoFNL members.

SCOTTISH Ambulance Service officials meet Highland MSPs on a regular basis at their Inverness HQ. We were updated on progress with their combined ambulance and NHS control room. With winter and possible flu epidemics in mind, we were happy to hear that NHS 24 has got a simpler set of questions when you phone in for advice or help. A wee tip to pass on – do keep the NHS 24 number on your mobile phone. It is 08454 242424, not so easy as 999 to remember, but most useful.

By the way, a Happy St Andrew's Day on November 30. Next year it could be a holiday.

Friday, 10 November 2006

IRAQ and Afghanistan overshadow yet another Remembrance Day as our troops cope with near-impossible tasks in hostile lands.

In past wars Scotland has given more than our fair share of service personnel who made the ultimate sacrifice. But the horrors of the Middle East are piling up civilian casualties on a par with those suffered in World War Two Russia.

I'm sure that those who gather to remember the fallen will spare a thought for citizens of countries in which Britain's leaders have meddled. Tony Blair's political epitaph will undoubtedly contain the word "Iraq", so I question how he can appear at the Cenotaph on Sunday with any kind of clear conscience. We all have a duty to see that the world of the future learns from our own history. Messrs Blair and Bush seem to have missed the messages of imperial failure to annex Afghanistan that started as far back as the 1870s.

I don't visit war memorials often, but in many communities you can't help but be drawn to read the names emblazoned thereon. It was a similar feeling when I paid my respects at the Highland Division monument at St Valéry en Caux in Normandy last summer. So many forced to surrender after the French cavalry hopelessly charging the German tanks, the calculations of politicians like Winston Churchill, and the four-year imprisonment of so many Highlanders and Islanders in debilitating captivity.

If the service rendered to this country by our soldiers, sailors and aircrew is to be duly honoured then it is our duty to elect future governments that will reduce their exposure to live fire and restrict our military activity to homeland security and to serve the UN. The days of imperial dreams are hopefully gone, but the subsequent role adopted by London governments as a world policeman cannot be allowed to take more lives.

*

FOLLOWING the floods and gales I sought a Ministerial Statement to bring home to Parliament how pictures of the floods and damage from Dingwall to Thurso and Kirkwall were so awful.

If 150 miles of Scotland in the central belt had been affected, camera crews would have combed the countryside. But the A9 got blocked in several places so the photos that appeared in local papers the following week, while vivid, only hint at the huge repair and restoration task to come.

The statement was granted two Wednesdays ago before decision time at 5pm. Then I was able to put on record the SNP's praise for the tireless work of the emergency services and our sympathy for householders and businesses so badly affected by these sudden and severe floods and gales, and particularly for the families of the Meridian crew after the fishing boat was lost in the oilfields east of Aberdeen.

As for action, we need a root-and-branch review of the Scottish government's preparations along with new pledges to open the coffers and provide expert advice to mitigate the disruption caused to communications, homes and businesses from such severe weather events.

It will take months to assess the full impact of this event, made worse by climate change, so, in the meantime, the government has to extend other funds to cash-strapped local authorities and utilities for the multi-million pounds of unforeseen costs that do not fit neatly into those for flood-prevention schemes.

As this cuts across the work of many government departments, the First Minister will have to ensure outstanding remedial work from this and previous severe-weather events, such as in the Uists in January 2005, do not drag on. The major issue of island links that can still let raging Atlantic waters filter through is yet to be agreed nearly two years on. So those wanting preparations made to protect crossings on the River Thurso need to get started soon.

Climate-change mitigation will cost a lot, but little or no investment would cost even more in future in terms of the increasing damage that would have to be put right. In the flat river valleys of Caithness, flooded rivers have to be given room to spread out and seep away. Too many choke points at road bridges have to be reassessed. Certainly low-lying areas prone to flooding should not be built on, and a local plan compiled with local knowledge will be essential.

*

HOW many of our youngsters are Homesmart? Last week I attended a reception organised by the Scottish Council for Single Homeless, hosted by my Central Scotland colleague Linda Fabiani. It attracted seven MSPs from the SNP, Greens, Tories and SSP. They heard about the information campaign to help prevent youth homelessness.

In Scotland in the past year over 4300 young people between 16 and 17 turned to their local authorities because they had nowhere safe and secure to stay. In all 19,400 in the 16 to 24 age bracket sought help. That's over 35 per cent of all homelessness applications.

As more and more of our young people go off to the cities the issue is top priority. That's not to say that in the villages and towns of Caithness there are not circumstances which force youngsters to leave home. That's why the teaching packs for S4 students have been produced. Also young people and their families can access advice about avoiding homelessness on http://www.leavinghome.info

I'm sure that MSPs of all parties will want to give our young people the best start in life. The SNP is committed to see the building of affordable housing where needed and more conciliation services to be staffed to keep families together where possible.

Friday, 27 October 2006

THERE are good reasons why Swedish dentists have been seeking work in this country. Their people have achieved one of the best records for oral health in the world, so Sweden needs far more dental hygienists than dentists.

In sharp contrast, figures released this week show only 24 per cent of adults in the Highlands are even registered with a dentist.

Is it taking the throwaway society to a new low to think that false teeth could be the lot of a growing number of our young people, not to mention a big proportion of the 75 per cent not registered with dentists? NHS provision of salaried dentists may be too little, but let's hope it's not too late.

However, the Scottish government has to resolve the central issue. In a rich country, when will we train enough dentists who are willing to work in the Far North and across the land? Secondly, what is a reasonable salary for a dentist that does not make registration with private practice so far out of reach for the low-paid?

I wonder if the Convention of the Highlands and Islands that meets in Forres next week will discuss the dental crisis. Who knows, but does this organisation do anything to ensure we get basic services we need?

According to its website the Scottish Executive meets its main partner agencies, represented by the chairperson of each organisation. Held twice yearly, hosted by a different local authority each time with alternating mainland and island locations, it seeks to strengthen co-ordination between member organisations, the Executive and other representative bodies to better inform the development and realisation of strategic economic, environmental, cultural and social justice objectives.

Since they came to power New Labour and the Lib Dems have excluded Highlands and Islands MSPs and MPs, except as observers. So there is little democratic input and it sums up a tick-box mentality. Endless rounds of meetings hide the huge gaps in delivering better government. The Forres meeting will provide helpful public-relations pictures for ministers. But it's a moribund symptom of the deep lack of democratic accountability in this hangover from Westminster rule.

***

A CONFIDENT SNP conference in Perth rallied as party leader Alex Salmond strongly urged voters that it is time to think big. He argued that, seven years after a spirit of optimism was abroad in this country in 1999 when the MSPs were cheered into the first Parliament building, Scotland has been let down.

"It is not just the track record of the Executive," he said, "it is the total lack of ambition. It is what they have not done – as well as where they have failed. They have raised mediocrity to an art form which is summed up in the First Minister's favourite slogan, 'Scotland is the best small country in the world.'

"This one phrase encapsulates everything that is wrong with the First Minister, with the Executive and with our national tourist agency – the only one in the world named after a website. It combines the worst of 'Wha's like us?' with the worst of an inferiority complex. We are not the best wee country in the world – not by any measurement.

"Perhaps we could be, but not now. But why should we think of ourselves as a small country? Scotland is only small to those who think small. It is time to think big."

Our nearest neighbours to the east, north and west – Norway, Iceland and Ireland – are the second, fourth and six wealthiest nations on the planet. Why not Scotland too? Scotland needs big thinking on energy and the environment, but let us contrast our political opponents' claims they are going green – actions speak louder than words.

The UK has spent £500 million in the past three years developing alternative energies. Seems like loads of money. In fact, it is but one tenth of the spending on the war in Iraq.

Here we are in the North of Scotland with all the advantages of land, water and infinite clean power and yet between them this blundering Executive and the Department of Trade and Industry have failed us. Suffice it to say that our communities are in a state of mutiny, being denied the local benefit from our energy resources that is the norm in Norway for long-term local investment.

Generating local sources of wealth will be one big way to remove that feeling of dependency and remoteness that a dozen Conventions of the Highlands and Islands cannot achieve behind closed doors. To every community of Scotland, the message from the SNP conference is: we have heard you, we're coming, and we are bringing a message of hope and change for Scotland, because it is time.

***

I HAD great fun writing the short title to a current motion which fifteen colleagues have so far signed: "Congratulations to Eejits." It praises Itchy Coo Publications on the success of its book The Eejits, a best-selling Scots translation of Roald Dahl's children's favourite The Twits.

Itchy Coo's development officer, Matthew Fitt, who translated The Eejits, has made over 500 school visits in the past four years to encourage pupils to recognise how much of the Scots language they know and use.

I went on to deplore the status of the Scots tongue whereby few pupils when asked can name their own language as Scots, Doric or Lallans and not slang. So here in Caithness the blend of Scots and Norse tongue fits the bill too, and I hope Matthew Fitt will be able to inspire our youngsters here in due course.

Friday, 13 October 2006

TWO Wednesdays ago I had to sum up for the SNP in the Food Chain Enquiry debate in Parliament. Often you have to reflect in such speeches on what others have already said. However I had plenty of material to add to the tally.

I had in front of me the comments of councillors over the Asda planning application for a Thurso store. They said it would only be fair to have Asda in Thurso to balance Tesco in Wick and hoped to get cheap petrol at both. Nonetheless, I believe that the supermarket monopoly needs wider grounds for discussion by planners if we are to get any balance of shops and real choice of wholesome food.

Regarding consumers demands for cheap food I stated: “There is a warning in the environment and rural development committee report on the position of the consumer. Paragraph 62 warns that to allow a short-term focus solely on the current prices faced by consumers risks undermining the viability of farm businesses, which will have long-term effects on the choice, freshness, quality and price of food available to consumers.”

I believe that the minister, Ross Finnie, as part of the Scottish Government, should be helping people to live more healthy lives.

Does he ensure that consumers are given better education and are better equipped to tackle what they are presented with on supermarket shelves, because convenience food is often poor food?

Shouldn’t our councillors have wider powers to measure retail applications? After all a crisis has led the Competition Commission to undertake its current enquiry into supermarket practices.

I suggested: “People can park for nothing in the car parks of out-of-town supermarkets whereas, if they use a small shop in the town centre, they will probably need to pay parking charges. I do not suggest for a minute that the large numbers of people who use supermarkets should be required to pay parking charges, but the supermarkets should be paying far higher rates. The supermarkets could also be encouraged to stock local produce and to carry their goods by rail in order to reduce problems on our roads. However, the planning bills that we consider never deal with those issues. The Executive must get involved in such regulation and start to help consumers and producers alike.”

Paradoxically it is anonymous shareholders of these supermarket chains who are farming us! How can it be, I asked, that “the Tescos of this world make such bloated profits at our expense, not only from our pockets but from our health”?

Surely governments can to some extent help to create a fairer market? If not why do we not demand they do?

* I HOPE you were as delighted as I was to read that Tom Farmer has donated £100,000 to the SNP, that should help to even up the election campaign leading to next May’s Scottish and local polls. With the large sums available to the British parties the case for Scotland’s future needs a more evenly balanced argument.

The SNP does not rely on dodgy loans and donations for peerages like other UK parties but relies on its members and local supporters for cash. Let’s hope other business people recognise that we have sound economic policies and contribute too.

* I AM watching the development and promotion of the Caithness and North Sutherland Socio-Economic Strategy. I see that the need for a supremo to drive forward the vision in this document has yet to be agreed. Although chaired by John Thurso MP the strategy needs a leader above the political fray.

Since I have discussed the similarities of the Caithness group’s aims with those of the SNP in our consultation Let Scotland Flourish I would venture to say that Scottish ministers should be asked to take the plans for the Far North under their wing. We still need a popular local champion but the split between Scottish Government and London Government powers is a definite hindrance

I suggested in the Caithness consultation that three immediate priorities form the basis for a very public campaign. They can all be decided here in Scotland right now.

Firstly we need a highly vocal demand for a 21st-century railway to the Far North including realistic costings for the Dornoch link that have yet to be established independently. This is needed alongside various programmed road improvements, not one or the other.

Secondly we need a commitment from HIE and the enterprise minister to back a centre of excellence based in Caithness for both the development and export of nuclear decommissioning skills and also to set up a major collaboration with the EMEC centre in Orkney to promote wave and tidal power in the Pentland Firth.

Thirdly we should be campaigning for enhanced democratic decision-taking at county level and to develop the powers of multi-member wards to make decisions about local development needs.

For now I’ll focus on North rail needs. This week’s news shows that decades of underinvestment have scuppered the extension of Inverness suburban services, the Invernet, to Elgin. The local papers in Inverness are full of it. But we need a comprehensive study to show the value of investment from Inverness to Thurso and Wick as the strategy admits.

Too many councillors and some MSPs see this as a low priority. But just like Tom Farmer giving the SNP a financial boost, I am appealing to benefactors large and small to help the Dornoch Link Action Group to commission a modern rail consultant to end the negative vibes of the “uneconomic” headlines. Hitrans, who have given rail a low priority even for Inverness to Elgin, have virtually ignored the Far North line. You can contact me through my Wick office for more details or via my e-mail address below.

Saturday, 30 September 2006

THE UK party conference season has been in full swing, though I detect fewer and fewer MSPs attending their UK counterparts’ events. We in the SNP has decided to move our annual conference to an October recess spot from the 11th to the 14th in Perth.

Thus SNP MSPs should not have to take time out of term and have the annual juggle of speaking slots in Parliament for those left to hold the line. But it also interferes with the cherished October holiday breaks in the sun and with events like the National Mod. So you can’t please everyone.

It seems that UK party conferences can badly misjudge policy decisions that affect Scotland and particularly the North. Take the Lib Dems’ proposals for a huge hike in road tax. They may have been targeting 4x4s in the leafy suburbs, but any increase in road tax hits hardest the rural-dwellers with no alternative transport.

Already their Orkney and Shetland MP is pledging to seek a Highlands and Islands opt-out. Hardly a reassuring pledge when you realise that countries like Norway, with full control of their own energy policy, make sure fuel is no cheaper in the north than in their capital city Oslo, and that moves away from the carbon economy are set to account for the needs of small communities as well as urban centres.

Last Thursday the Tories led a debate on the environment. It was a bit like a truth and reconciliation commission. Nonetheless I pointed out that the Environment Minister should not gloat. He had previously told me in the Parliament that we cannot produce more than 40 per cent of our energy from renewables in Scotland but now his party’s policy is a far higher target, which the SNP welcomes.

Ross Finnie retorted, “That is absolute nonsense!”

In January 2005 I pointed out that their target is to produce 40 per cent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2020, so the bulk of our electricity – the other 60 per cent – also has to be produced. If the Government was serious, it would have said that it wanted most of our power to be produced by renewables. That could be the centrepiece of its policy, but it has not made it so.

Ross Finnie confirmed at that time why their target was 40 per cent: “It was set after extensive consultation with all sectors—not just energy producers, but communities, energy groups and environmentalists.”

Maybe Mr Finnie actually agrees with Jack McConnell, who told a fringe meeting at Labour’s UK conference in Manchester that Labour had not done enough to combat climate change. The First Minister said, “I have always had concerns that the Labour Party as a whole does not yet see environmental issues and environmental justice in particular, but also climate change, as a central issue for democratic socialism.”

We should be very concerned too. Climate change is the defining issue that governs our future. It’s up to us to meet the challenge if there’s to be any habitable Scotland a century from now.

* CAN you believe that over 60 per cent of families no longer buy lamb? So MSPs were informed during a presentation by Quality Meat Scotland during the recent Scottish Food Fortnight. Around a third of Scots farms and many more crofts draw some revenue from sheep. But we export 25 per cent of our high-class product to discerning Europeans and another 45 per cent to equally discerning eaters of lamb in England and Wales. So why don’t Scots, especially those under 45 years, eat this delicious home product?

Scots consumed only around one-third as much as their English counterparts during 2004/05.

Old scare stories about it being too fatty have run too long. Perhaps it is the reluctance of families to cook ingredients from scratch that’s at fault. Anyway, it would interesting to know what happens locally.

Meanwhile, breeding sheep numbers have reduced once again, although Scottish abattoirs have handled 8.5 per cent more lambs since the start of the current lamb season, which began in earnest in May. The samples we tasted in Parliament were taken from Shetland to Galloway. Surely such a treat is not beyond the average household food budget today.

* RECRUITING more GPs and hospital doctors to serve our scattered rural and remote communities relies on giving recruits the support they need to build a career. That’s one of the lessons of the Caithness maternity struggle which is now delivering a common-sense support for the full unit in Wick at consultant and midwife team levels. So it was with dismay that I listened to the Health Minister Andy Kerr reiterate that the health service has to be built around patient needs alone.

Mr Kerr doesn’t seem to grasp that you need to woo workers to get out of the big teaching hospital environment. Why did he set up a Remote and Rural Medicine unit based in the Western Isles if not to do that?

He parried another query from Green MSP Eleanor Scott thus: “I find it odd that, according to the argument in the member’s question, somehow our job is to provide speciality training for anybody who wants it in a particular area, which should be in line not with the needs of patients but with people’s career choices. I also find odd the suggestion that we should allow people to work wherever they want. The health service is a national service and our job is to ensure that opportunities are available nationally.”

His bluster shows that this Minister does not get the point. What good are unhappy staff in places they don’t want to work? What about giving recruits a happy apprenticeship and build confidence in the whole health service? We await developments on the NHS recruiting front as a repeat advert for the third consultant post at Wick’s maternity goes out.

Friday, 15 September 2006

WHAT would the modern image of Ireland be like without the annual bash on St Patrick’s Day that is held around the world? It’s a day to celebrate an ancient nation with a distinctive language and culture that today is recognised as the Celtic Tiger. Against the odds, Ireland has clawed its way up to boast a higher gross domestic product than the UK, from which it fully seceded in 1937.

It was the UK Wyndham Act of 1904 that turned Irish tenants into farm owners. This further fuelled their step-by-step demands for full self-government. That said, poverty still drove many Irish people overseas, till today Irish people are returning in droves and they are even importing labourers from England like we are doing from Eastern Europe.

Today 25 per cent of people in the UK claim Irish ancestry; in London it is as high as 77 per cent. But citizens of the Irish Republic are part of a Common Travel Area set up many years ago that allows free passage all around the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands, and now the EU has extended these bounds enormously.

So isn’t it strange that the candidate to be next Labour leader in London and his supporters argue that, because Scots have family in England and vice versa, that must mean we should be in one state and have decisions about Scottish taxes and the direction of the Scottish economy forever decided in London? It hardly makes foreigners of any of our relatives inside Europe, or even worldwide, so why would independence make foreigners of Scots in England?

Even more grudging is Labour’s man in Scotland, First Minister Jack McConnell, who has finally conceded a holiday for St Andrew’s Day just so long as we forgo another public day off. We Scots are entitled to eight public holidays annually. That’s two fewer than the Irish and four fewer than the EU average. Isn’t it about time that the gloom spread by business representatives about the loss to their tills was countered with indignation about being denied a day to celebrate Scotland, our ancient and modern nation, that wasn’t created merely by the tally of pounds and pence? We should also be demanding that the next Holyrood government actually supports the small businesses that suffer so badly from half-baked government under devolution.

TALKING about promoting successful businesses, I was heartened to meet a party from Kentucky who visited us in Parliament en route for 10 days in the Highlands and Orkney to see how we support and nurture small businesses hereabouts. These Kentuckians are volunteers from their own rural entrepreneurial institute which works to promote more self-employment and rural sustainability.

One thing each US state can do is to decide the level of taxes to be levied for state services from citizens and businesses. Indeed, some states have extremely low business taxes to attract new start-ups and firms from other states. Nebraska is a good example. The idea is simply to increase business activity, and tax revenues flow from success. Would that Scotland can make our taxes attractive so that vulnerable areas like our own can get an advantage.

That could help small businesses here in the North grow into larger ones. To promote this debate, the SNP is consulting on a Small Business Bonus Scheme in which 120,000 small businesses across Scotland could have their rates abolished and a further 30,000 businesses could benefit through higher rates relief. Put that into Highland Council terms under SNP proposals: 8900 firms would pay no business rates and 2200 would have reduced rates. That’s a big proportion of the 15,000 businesses in total across the North.

As part of our wider economic strategy, the SNP is determined to support the small business sector which has been let down under the administration of Jack McConnell and Nicol Stephen. Small businesses have traditionally been important to the economy of small towns and rural areas like Caithness for a variety of reasons: as a source of entrepreneurship and innovation, as a driver of competition and local economic vibrancy, as a mechanism for job creation and as the backbone of our rural economy.

Next year there is a straight choice between the failing Labour Party, with their Lib Dem allies, and the SNP. In preparation for government the SNP can deliver a real boost to small businesses and help Scotland reach its economic potential. At an initial £150 million cost to the Scottish budget, this should diminish as more small businesses benefit from the economic boost at the very time Scotland can also take charge of our tax system and economy. Who knows, it could tempt thousands of Scots driven south to find jobs over the years to make the same homecoming as the Irish. We can have more and more to celebrate each St Andrew’s Day when we follow the Irish success story.

Friday, 1 September 2006

SHOULD North of Scotland customers of Scottish Water agree with the Scottish government that the public utility is delivering for our needs? That’s what Highland MSPs have been asking for years, and were able to ask Scottish Water’s top brass in a cross-party meeting held in Inverness on Wednesday.

I have to recall the SNP-led debate last March on the work of the troubled quango after its chairman, Alan Alexander, fell on his sword following months of wrangling about the budget for the next four years’ programme that was halted by the minister in a calculated political face-saving move that ordered the appointment of a new chairman days before Mr Alexander was sacked. Alas, the little matter of a loose beam in the Parliamentary Chamber distracted attention from the vote which was delayed as a result of our urgent decant into temporary quarters.

Labour and Lib Dems agreed that Ross Finnie had displayed “good stewardship” of the quango and won by 65 votes to 47, with six abstentions. In May 2007 voters can decide whether they agree with the words of that winning amendment – “these actions by the Executive represent good stewardship of Scottish Water in the public and customer interest”.

But the question has added point this month as the Highland Council flagged up the fact that 1600 homes with planning permission cannot proceed due to lack of water investment. This is down to Scottish Water being only recently geared up to meeting the extra costs of small developments in remoter areas.

An answer to another Parliamentary Question sheds further doubt on the likelihood of a speedy solution. My colleague Stewart Stevenson, SNP MSP for Banff and Buchan, asked the Communities Minister how many new houses have been built in each constituency since 1999. In Highland the completion figures have steadily dropped from 1366 in 1999 to 847 in 2005. The Western Isles have doubled, as has Moray; Orkney has trebled and Shetland dropped to two-thirds. Most of these are much smaller councils but the problem of 1600 awaiting water schemes could take years to sort out.

It is all the more perplexing that government whips ordered rejection of the SNP motion in Parliament last March as it expressed concern over the impact of delays in investment in water and sewerage infrastructure on economic, environmental and social development in Scotland.

Dark rumours have surfaced that it is much easier for the government and Scottish Water to gain credit for large schemes completed in central Scotland rather than scattered small ones in the North, which take far greater time and costs to deliver. For example, costs for the Milngavie water treatment works sounds enormous; the Katrine Water Project is the largest single water treatment scheme in Scottish Water’s current £2.15 billion investment programme and is intended to provide Greater Glasgow with a state-of-the-art water supply. Estimated project costs stand at £120 million, with other elements having added a further £7.9 million to the original estimates. So no expenses spared to sort out Glasgow’s water issues. Can we expect the same determination to invest in our priorities up here?

I hope to get agreement across the parties for a rural priority list to fund water connections in North. Simple questions need answered. Does every house with planning permission have the same urgency? If it is to house essential workers and young or homeless people, should they not get a higher ranking? And what about new business premises? These things have to be thrashed out.

I look forward to a more sophisticated debate that delivers equitable results.

THE advantages of choosing to generate electricity from sources such as coal, gas, oil and nuclear are hard to define. Each of these sources is finite. But all fail to capture the heat produced in the power production process as practised in the UK today. That reduces their efficiency enormously and makes little or no economic or scientific sense.

Combined heat and power meets both energy efficiency and CO2 reduction targets. That’s why Sweden, Denmark and Holland, our near neighbours, have placed energy generation plants closer to the users and are now able to contemplate changing the power source from fossil and finite to infinitely renewable fuel sources. They are also replacing fossil fuels with biomass in local plants and at the national level, for example in Sweden, they aim to make their total energy economy a non-carbon one, with no nuclear element, by 2020.

This week I found out more about working Dutch technology that heats or cools huge road flyovers and airport runways and uses the heat produced to heat or cool housing blocks, industrial and commercial buildings, as required. It is being developed by a company that has been based in Ullapool for the past 10 years. Invisible Heating Systems is taking the principle of combined heat and power first of all installed in its underfloor heating systems by using the surprising capacity for tarmacadam to convert roads and driveways into giant solar panels along with a heat-exchange system that stores energy in the form of warm or cold water in the ground that can be tapped into when required.

A square metre of tarmac can absorb and deliver about half of energy of a similar-sized solar panel for under a tenth of the price. So as long as the road or bridge is near a housing scheme or swimming pool, etc., this can be applied.

It has been estimated that if a tenth of Holland’s motorways were so built they could generate as much power as the electricity companies today.

Of course it is only one of the renewable options that can be produced locally and delivered anywhere in the world. Why should we be interested? Because every time oil prices rise, more and more people are looking to invest in cash-saving and energy-saving alternatives. The trick for the North of Scotland is to get a mix of systems going to transform our comfort and energy efficiency.

If we follow ideas like those that Henc Verweijmeren and Liz Stewart and their team of 16 employees are growing in Ullapool, they could even lead to future steps to create buildings that need zero heat input. But why not get wise now to the uses of the heat source of the Earth to help solve our heat and electricity problems?

Friday, 18 August 2006

AT the very time the Caithness Socio-Economic Strategy Group has been consulting on the way ahead for the county’s economy, my party has been consulting on its proposals called Let Scotland Flourish. Both are sustainable growth strategies – one for the Dounreay travel-to-work area and the SNP ideas for every part of Scotland.

Comparing the goals I also find similarities. The SNP highlights three key words: solidarity, cohesion and sustainability. Firstly, we need to raise the overall national wealth but in particular to increase the wealth of the lowest-paid quarter of our people. Secondly, the SNP aims to increase the wealth of every region of Scotland, reducing the disparity from richest to poorest by 10 per cent in five years. Thirdly, we would commit to continue cutting CO2 emissions far beyond 2012 at an equivalent two per cent annual reduction. In summary, the SNP suggests getting more people into work, making sure there’s a home for every family, and meeting our environmental duties. These go hand in hand to give every part of Scotland a fighting chance to share in future prosperity.

The Caithness proposals centre on developing existing businesses, attracting new ones, and adding government decentralisation to create new administrative jobs in the Far North. Secondly, they seek enhanced public services that will attract new workers and businesses as well as meet existing local needs. Thirdly, it intends to make sure the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority conducts the Dounreay transformation in a way that transfers staff into new work of similar status and quality and helps fund new developments.

We can see that ambition and ideas are needed both locally and nationally to make headway. Communications, resources and actions are the identified means to achieve the Caithness transformation.

The SNP national plan is to reduce the burdens on small and medium-sized businesses and focus on our strengths, which include industries well represented in Caithness. Farming, fishing and tourism, but most all the knowledge economy, can be successful wherever there are the skills and broadband links and renewable energy sources.

Big questions require bold answers. Can we really believe that devolution under Labour and the Lib Dems will meet our needs, be they in Caithness or for the nation as a whole? We have the resources like Norway, Ireland and Iceland but are frustrated by not having our hands on them.

Should we allow Gordon Brown’s tax policies to leave us as producers of wealth but with the highest fuel costs and highest loss of young people on the mainland UK to the benefit of others?

I look forward to making a submission to the Strategy for Caithness and North Sutherland. You can find copies at www.hie.co.uk/cns-consultation.pdf and the closing date is August 20.

*

TALKING of ambition, I note the new estimates of a £5 billion surplus for Scots tax contributions to the London Treasury this year. That means, as the world price of oil rises to around £80 a barrel, we contribute £1039 extra per head for every man, woman and child in Scotland this year. Remember the doom-laden prophesies that oil would be running out very soon? Well, the Blair Government’s recent energy review suggests there are still 25 billion barrels of oil recoverable from the Scottish sector of the North Sea. So it will remain a strong revenue earner for decades to come.

That also suggests that a more competitive Scotland can become a reality if we change out of second gear that is devolution and move to the full tax and economy powers that our neighbours have. Long-term sustainability for every part of Scotland is at stake. That makes the Scottish Parliament and local council elections next May the tipping point. People across the land see the possibility of Labour losing power in Scotland for the first time in fifty years.

As MSPs prepare for the last session of this Parliament, the need for a new lead party in the next coalition should put the SNP’s ideas to the test and try them out in the driving seat; after all, a fresh start can bring out the best in every part of Scotland.

*

THROUGHOUT my summer travels through Caithness, Sutherland, Ross-shire, Lewis and Skye the same theme comes up. When will Parliament cut down the civil service to size? When will red tape be top of the agenda?

Since better communications are cited as key to new prospects and prosperity, I suggest that the civil servants be set to work to free up as many parts of Scottish life as possible. Ministers should be tasked by our parliamentary committees to run a programme to take service after service and cut out reams of paperwork. One person suggested a single transferable form, with standard details of applicants followed by standard questions on reasons for applications, etc.

For my part I’ll be taking the advice of farmers and crofters I met at various agricultural shows. I’ll be seeking simplification of the cattle and sheep movement documents with the help of our Environment and Rural Development Committee. But all applicants for economic support or regulatory returns deserve a break. A few less civil servants checking we cross our t’s and dot our i’s could free up bureaucrats to be more creative. Or is that a contradiction in terms?

I hope not, for if communications are to lead to action for the economic well-being of the Dounreay travel-to-work area then civil servants will have to be relocated here – say, a major division of SEERAD from Pentland House to the shores of the Pentland Firth.

Also proper road and rail communications funded realistically are needed to include us in the mainstream of Scottish life. In addition, Government commitments must offer satellite broadband for every household in this digital age if landlines are too weak and exchanges too distant.

Getting a grudging Government to serve us and not the other way round would be a culture change of monumental proportions. But voting for change is much more straightforward by comparison.

Friday, 4 August 2006

A JULY break abroad, in my case in Brittany, returns me reinvigorated, and some holiday reading also added zest.

Zorro by Isabel Allende tracks the “origins” of the foxy swordsman who was, of course, a Spanish Californian fighting for freedom and justice long, long before the USA got its hands on the place or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s great-great-grandfather was conceived in far away Austria.

My other gripping read was our own Joanna Blythman in Bad Food Britain.

It graphically details how a nation ruined its appetite. As a family the Blythmans have contributed much to Scotland since the late Morris Blythman penned radical songs in the 1950s such as “Sky-high Joe”, “Scottish Breakaway”, “Ye’ll no Sit Here”, and “Bonny Wee Prince Chairlie”. His wife, Marion, was a distinguished innovator in the teaching of the deaf who turned down an honour from the Queen in the Thatcher era in protest against nuclear weapons expansion. Now Joanna carries on the family traditions as an investigative journalist, whose exposé of supermarket practices in Shopped won her the Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year Award for 2005.

It was a useful reference when our Scottish Parliament committee called for an independent review of supermarket monopoly. I’m glad to say that the Blair government has allowed the Competition Commission to undertake this after huge pressure across the whole UK.

Did you know that one in every four households no longer has a table that everyone can eat around, or that one in every three Britons says they do not eat vegetables because they require too much effort to prepare? Also, only 50 per cent of Britons really enjoy eating and 40 per cent of food bought in the UK is never used! The downfall of the British diet led in 2003 to us consuming more ready meals than the rest of Europe put together. Far too many think almost everything other than food is more important.

Returning home to the great supermarket battles here in Caithness, Tesco hopes to see off the Co-op and Asda wants to dominate the other side of the county. I can understand the popular demands for the range of produce the big four sell under one roof. But I seriously question the groaning shelves full of convenience food that is now standard fare. Microwavability seems to be essential. That’s why I had hoped our councillors would be trying to make conditions on Tesco, such as stocking a wide range of local produce. They could also insist that supermarkets use the railway to carry in goods. But even better they could raise a health warning on the public’s belief that cheap, processed food and nutrition are not the same thing.

Local producers with stalls at Highland gatherings and agricultural shows are offering healthy local food. I also know the Highland Council tries to buy local and organic produce for our schools and old peoples’ homes.

But the vast bulk of us still seem to want cheap, processed food that has little connection with healthy children or sustaining families, whose waistlines spread on the diet of bad food that Joanna Blythman highlights in her chapter “Britain makes you fat”. I welcome John O’Groat Journal headlines on the Mey Selections as a great way to boost high-quality food exports from the county, but what are people eating here and what should we demand of incoming supermarkets?

*

ON holiday, the local Breton newspaper Ouest France, the equivalent of the Press and Journal, led with carnage and devastation in Lebanon, Gaza and Israel. Now back home it seems the USA and UK leaders are in no hurry to restrain the combat and give every impression that Arab lives are cheap. Clearly their morality has been dulled by believing that their destruction and destabilisation of Iraq was a just war. Everyone knows that Israel and the Palestinians will have to live side by side. Eventually the US military and financial backing for Israel has to be turned off and the parties brought to the table.

It’s just as a big concern in this peaceful corner of northern Europe because the use of Prestwick airport for US aircraft to refuel bears no comparison to World War Two when our remarkably fog-free Ayrshire airfield was a key transatlantic staging post. Yes, the Americans eventually came into the war after the Japanese attacked their Pacific bases and Germany declared war on the USA three days later, on December 10, 1941.

On the way home from holidays we stopped off at St Valery en Caux in Normandy where the Highland Division were forced to surrender to Hitler’s forces in June 1940. Today it is a beautiful, small port tucked between huge chalk cliffs, just like those at Dover. Yachts fill the harbour. But the Highland Division monument in the eastern cliff top reminds us how our men were abandoned to years as prisoners of war at the behest of Winston Churchill and the British war cabinet who managed, with great luck, to evacuate so many from Dunkirk while the Scots and French acted as a diversion.

Thankfully the Allies, with the help of Scots servicemen and women, defeated Nazi Germany and fascist Japan in that just war and the United Nations Organisation was founded. But will its founders, the USA and UK, now revitalise the UN as a peacemaker and the sole peace keeper in this turbulent world? When will they stop including Scotland in their unjust wars? Even the Labour Secretary of State for Scotland is worried about Scottish opinion as we do not accept the unasked-for role in arming one side in the Middle East conflict.

Scottish membership of the UN would come with independence. In a much stronger UN we would be a clear voice to help end Anglo-American indifference to the future of so many vulnerable peoples for the sake of dwindling oil and American arrogance.

Friday, 7 July 2006

THE end of term, whether at school or in parliament, is hectic. Since we try to be a family-friendly establishment, schoolchildren and MSP parents can spend some holiday time together.

At the end of term there have been record numbers of lobby groups holding “must have your attendance” events. I had to bring my Wick-based assistant, Niall, to Edinburgh to help us cover them.

From timber merchants to railway lobbyists and receptions for the president of Slovenia, then to attend the Scottish political journalists’ annual dinner where I joined the Scottish Water table. As the SNP water spokesperson, it was a chance to meet the interim chairman Ronnie Mercer, who was hurriedly recruited when Professor Alan Alexander was forced to resign by Ross Finnie in February when crisis overtook the publicly-owned water company over the delivery of the next four-year plan and meeting the swelling chorus demanding removal of development constraints.

George Gunn, in his column “From the Deck of the Pictish Navy” in last week’s Groat, noted the public dissatisfaction with the public water company alongside record water leaks, while the headlines have been dominated by news of directors’ performance bonuses and persistent rumours that the Treasury in London wants rid of our key public utility.

No issue in Holyrood better highlights the divide between the ambitions of the SNP and the half-baked approach of the Liberal Democrat and Labour government. In 2004 the Finance Committee could not agree over the way Scottish Water is funded. In a minority report my colleagues Jim Mather and Fergus Ewing, along with pensioners’ party MSP John Swinburne, exposed the facts.

Scottish Water is paying for its capital investments such as the Loch Calder plant by taking eighty-six per cent of the cost from current domestic and business customers’ bills. Since capital investments span thirty years, that is an unacceptable burden exacerbated by a restricted right to borrow. If they had consent to borrow in the market for longer-term payback, greater things could be achieved for far less pain.

It is a complete fallacy that private water companies are the answer. Their leaks and charges are no better and uncaring shareholders farm the customers. We must resist the idea of worldwide shareholders ever being allowed to soak Scottish Water customers. So what’s the answer? An SNP Scottish government wants fiscal autonomy, i.e. controlling our taxes in Scotland. Then we could set up a fund for public investment and borrow at far better rates in the market. Another way to do this is like Glas Cymru, the new version of Welsh Water that is a mutual or not-for-profit company. It’s a way to recycle the profits into the business.

Such a change of structure or borrowing consent would allow us to catch up with EU standards for water quality and sewage treatment. That would stop the biggest pain – lack of sufficient funds to make sites available for development. It would speed up house-building and end delays in site development for new business.

* HIGHLAND archives are assured of a safe home thanks to last week’s announcement of a £4.3 million Lottery grant. Although this will be sited near the Floral Hall at the Bught Park, Inverness, there are satellite offices including the one in Wick. The Highland Council is rightly pleased that the new-build facility will commence in 2007, the Scottish Year of Highland Culture, for completion in the Highland Year of Homecoming two years later.

With so many more overseas visitors tracing their roots, genealogy is big business. I am always intrigued to see how much use is made of archive materials. As a historian I should declare an interest but can only concur with the education, culture and sport chairman, Councillor Andy Anderson, that our archives are of world significance. He is no slouch himself as an avid collector of information on the Caithness Anderson families.

* A CHANCE news item from South Dakota last week whetted my appetite for family links across the ocean. It told of a nine-storey-high carving in the South Dakota hills that is nearing completion. It has taken decades to carve the face of Crazy Horse, the Oglala Sioux leader who masterminded the rout of the US 7th Cavalry led by Colonel Custer at the Little Big Horn on June 25 one hundred and thirty years ago. Eighty-year-old Ruth Ziolkowski is the proprietor of this giant sculpture on behalf of her late husband, but intriguingly her maiden name was Ruth Ross.

Two links came to mind. Crazy Horse’s sister was married to Scotty Philip, a gold-miner and eventually a successful rancher in South Dakota who bought the last pure-bred buffalo and saved the species. Philip came from Dallas in Moray. I wonder where Ruth Ross’s forebears left to live in Connecticut, USA?

Another link to the Wild West jumped out of the pages of the Caithness Book which tells of the Lockie family from John O’Groats who emigrated to Montana around 1900. A fine picture shows six sons dressed in cowboy gear on horseback

driving a herd of cattle to the railhead in 1940. Montana only became safe for settlement and homesteaders like the Lockies thanks to the murders of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, the massacre at Wounded Knee in December 1890 and the confining of Indians to the dreaded reservations. In fact the Lockie ranch at Sheffield on the Yellowstone River was under a hundred miles from the Little Bighorn battlefield.

Genealogy and archives mine a great treasure chest, so a little praise for the Highland Council is due on this occasion for a good investment to make a future from our past.

Friday, 23 June 2006

A GREAT deal of heat was produced 10 days ago in the Holyrood chamber by a short debate on the Student Fees (Specification) (Scotland) Order.

Why so? By a slim majority the Lib Dem and Labour parties whipped through a variable tuition fee charge of £2700 for medical students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This is £1000 more than the variable fee to be paid by other students from these areas coming to Scottish universities. The rowdy barracking from government benches tells us an election is in the offing.

The Scottish government previously vetoed top-up fees but has now introduced anomalies based on where you come from. Paradoxically, students from the Irish Republic or any other EU state don't pay, while English, Welsh and Northern Irish students will have to pay more to study in Scotland.

As the independent MSP Dennis Canavan pointed out, such discrimination is illegal between EU states, but a loophole is being used to restrict non-Scottish UK applicants.

The Deputy First Minister, Lib Dem leader Nicol Stephen, built his educational Hadrian's Wall but the bricks are made without straw. An influx of English candidates fleeing the fees hike to Scottish courses was assured, he told us. In 2005, "before the costs were announced, the number of applicants for medical places from England increased by 17.8 per cent…

"That is the reason for this move… It is a practical, sensible policy from an Executive that has abolished tuition fees, opposes top-up fees, opposes variable fees and is absolutely determined to protect university places for Scottish students."

But is this the real issue? Of course Scotland needs more doctors, we need more of those trained here to stay and work here, but is it not sensible to open up courses to greater numbers and especially to those from working-class backgrounds, no matter where they come from?

The SNP was vilified by the First Minister for keeping courses open and opposing these "top-up" fees as "the most anti-Scottish thing that it has ever done".

Surely the imposition of a graduate tax on students was far more damaging. Isn't the Scottish way to open education to as many as possible, as I and Jack McConnell and Nicol Stephen and Jamie Stone all experienced?

Yet in Jamie's speech he set aside his manufactured rage at the First Minister, as reported in the Groat a few weeks ago, and grabbed hold of the little Scotland line. "We must ensure that students choose to study in Scotland because it is the best place for their education, not because it is the best place for their pocket," was his rallying cry. "I have said before, and I will say again, that I will not tolerate students from my constituency or any other part of Scotland losing out. It is our job to stand up for our students."

In the old Scots tradition of free education there would not have been the need to "stand up for our students". They would have had rights, and can do again. SNP researchers have proved that student grants are cheaper than student loans and that is admitted now by others. So the mix of students shouldn't need quotas.

The humbug of protecting students from the Far North "losing out" should be exposed for what it is - a guilty cover-up by a Lib Dem to hide the introduction of the graduate tax.

We are a rich country - why not invest in education and be honest about the real costs? Then we can have a proper debate about controlling the revenue and taxes which are reserved to London at present and are denied under devolution.

Jamie and his friends are remarkably silent when it comes to the hundreds of graduates already "losing out" who have had to make a start paying the Lib Dem/ Labour graduate tax. The coming election could indeed be made to change all that.

NEWS that "rich" NHS areas will have to subsidise "poor" regions is the latest wheeze of the Scottish Health Minister, Andy Kerr. That begs another monetary question: how do you measure riches and poverty?

I've been campaigning about care of the elderly, better public transport, support for rural services like the post offices and, yes, health services in smaller communities, such as the resuscitated Wick maternity unit. All these and many more rely for funds on the way we measure need.

Academics agree that urban needs and rural needs require different measurements. Alas this government sees its Labour heartlands as those in most need.

That's because they refuse to adopt a rural deprivation index, the fair way to determine remoter areas' needs too.

Comparisons with our Scandinavian neighbours are the subject of studies in the EU Northern Peripheries Programmes to which I have contributed my tuppenceworth this week. In an interview with Dr Jane Farmer, of the Highlands and Islands Health Research Institute, I argued that you can add up affordable housing, support for older people or small schools, the unchanging nature of our scattered geography… all have to be coped with.

If you leave it to the current measures we are too often short-changed. As a national-minded Scot I can't see why any part of the country should be forced to accept disadvantage through lack of honest measurement of our needs.

That's ufinished business that an SNP-led government must tackle.

BRIEFINGS on all the crises of the day rain in thick and fast. The middle of June seems a particularly fertile time for non-governmental organisation staff to bombard harassed MSPs.

So it was with a little relief that I looked over the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds document on avian Flu. Happily it was sent to me by their advocacy coordinator Juliet Swann…

A GREAT deal of heat was produced 10 days ago in the Holyrood chamber by a short debate on the Student Fees (Specification) (Scotland) Order.

Why so? By a slim majority the Lib Dem and Labour parties whipped through a variable tuition fee charge of £2700 for medical students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This is £1000 more than the variable fee to be paid by other students from these areas coming to Scottish universities. The rowdy barracking from government benches tells us an election is in the offing.

The Scottish government previously vetoed top-up fees but has now introduced anomalies based on where you come from. Paradoxically, students from the Irish Republic or any other EU state don't pay, while English, Welsh and Northern Irish students will have to pay more to study in Scotland.

As the independent MSP Dennis Canavan pointed out, such discrimination is illegal between EU states, but a loophole is being used to restrict non-Scottish UK applicants.

The Deputy First Minister, Lib Dem leader Nicol Stephen, built his educational Hadrian's Wall but the bricks are made without straw. An influx of English candidates fleeing the fees hike to Scottish courses was assured, he told us. In 2005, "before the costs were announced, the number of applicants for medical places from England increased by 17.8 per cent…

"That is the reason for this move… It is a practical, sensible policy from an Executive that has abolished tuition fees, opposes top-up fees, opposes variable fees and is absolutely determined to protect university places for Scottish students."

But is this the real issue? Of course Scotland needs more doctors, we need more of those trained here to stay and work here, but is it not sensible to open up courses to greater numbers and especially to those from working-class backgrounds, no matter where they come from?

The SNP was vilified by the First Minister for keeping courses open and opposing these "top-up" fees as "the most anti-Scottish thing that it has ever done".

Surely the imposition of a graduate tax on students was far more damaging. Isn't the Scottish way to open education to as many as possible, as I and Jack McConnell and Nicol Stephen and Jamie Stone all experienced?

Yet in Jamie's speech he set aside his manufactured rage at the First Minister, as reported in the Groat a few weeks ago, and grabbed hold of the little Scotland line. "We must ensure that students choose to study in Scotland because it is the best place for their education, not because it is the best place for their pocket," was his rallying cry. "I have said before, and I will say again, that I will not tolerate students from my constituency or any other part of Scotland losing out. It is our job to stand up for our students."

In the old Scots tradition of free education there would not have been the need to "stand up for our students". They would have had rights, and can do again. SNP researchers have proved that student grants are cheaper than student loans and that is admitted now by others. So the mix of students shouldn't need quotas.

The humbug of protecting students from the Far North "losing out" should be exposed for what it is - a guilty cover-up by a Lib Dem to hide the introduction of the graduate tax.

We are a rich country - why not invest in education and be honest about the real costs? Then we can have a proper debate about controlling the revenue and taxes which are reserved to London at present and are denied under devolution.

Jamie and his friends are remarkably silent when it comes to the hundreds of graduates already "losing out" who have had to make a start paying the Lib Dem/ Labour graduate tax. The coming election could indeed be made to change all that.

NEWS that "rich" NHS areas will have to subsidise "poor" regions is the latest wheeze of the Scottish Health Minister, Andy Kerr. That begs another monetary question: how do you measure riches and poverty?

I've been campaigning about care of the elderly, better public transport, support for rural services like the post offices and, yes, health services in smaller communities, such as the resuscitated Wick maternity unit. All these and many more rely for funds on the way we measure need.

Academics agree that urban needs and rural needs require different measurements. Alas this government sees its Labour heartlands as those in most need.

That's because they refuse to adopt a rural deprivation index, the fair way to determine remoter areas' needs too.

Comparisons with our Scandinavian neighbours are the subject of studies in the EU Northern Peripheries Programmes to which I have contributed my tuppenceworth this week. In an interview with Dr Jane Farmer, of the Highlands and Islands Health Research Institute, I argued that you can add up affordable housing, support for older people or small schools, the unchanging nature of our scattered geography… all have to be coped with.

If you leave it to the current measures we are too often short-changed. As a national-minded Scot I can't see why any part of the country should be forced to accept disadvantage through lack of honest measurement of our needs.

That's ufinished business that an SNP-led government must tackle.

BRIEFINGS on all the crises of the day rain in thick and fast. The middle of June seems a particularly fertile time for non-governmental organisation staff to bombard harassed MSPs.

So it was with a little relief that I looked over the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds document on avian Flu. Happily it was sent to me by their advocacy coordinator Juliet Swann…

Friday, 9 June 2006

ON my travels I sense a growing mood of confidence about our diverse culture and languages in the Highlands and Islands. That's a sure sign of a wider optimism for our economic and social prospects.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise has recently acknowledged the key part played by our traditional arts and music as well as contemporary artistic expression in underpinning lively communities. This has been confirmed by widespread research over several years. Would that Scottish Enterprise had a similar remit for the rest of Scotland.

Happenstance last week led me to meet a most enthusiastic local proponent of that confident cultural diversity. She is Dr Donna Heddle, of Orkney College, who mentors the UHI's BA honours degree in Cultural Studies of the Highlands and Islands and their MA in Highlands and Islands Literature. These are naturally open to distance-learning opportunities but based in Orkney. Donna, a Caithness native from Castletown, has drawn together an exciting prospectus of all the strands of identity that make up our complex region around the Pentland Firth and the North Atlantic rim.

The courses are attracting students from abroad; several are signed up from the USA and Canada. Revenue from their fees boosts the chances of more local candidates being able to develop their knowledge of our Scots, Gaelic and Norse cultures that coalesce - or, as some would have it, collide - in the Caithness, Sutherland and Orkney triangle. I was pleased to see that Dr Heddle has engaged Carl MacDougall, host of the excellent four-part series Scots: The Language of the People screened recently on BBC TV.

Talking of confidence-building, we need a big push for the Thurso-based nuclear decommissioning studies just in case people believe newspaper stories that the University of Central Lancashire beat us to it.

The cross-party group for Scots language decided last week that Dr Heddle should make us a presentation in the autumn. She's a Caithnessian who has learned Gaelic along with her robust native speech in the Castletown version of the Caithness dialect. There's a lot we can learn from Donna so Caithness schools can enjoy the legacy of Caithness Scots and Gaelic that provides a new sense of well-being for the Far North. In contrast I am aware of certain councillors who object to Gaelic language appearing on bilingual road signs here and even voting in the Highland Council to stop people in other distant parts of the Highlands from opening a Gaelic-medium school.

With a local culture which has huge dollops of English regional accents, through the all-UK recruitment to Dounreay, diversity could stand a bit of celebration by including local strands of culture too. Frankly it would be racist if anyone proposed that all English people should conform by dropping their local tongue when they reside in the county. Who knows, some locals might soon be telling all Polish arrivals that they have to speak English, or else.

Hopefully not if a confident and informed mood is adopted by those in positions of power towards our own native tongues and the new tongues on the block.

CAITHNESS is indeed a unique place but it has yet to fix that idea in the wider public mind - that despite having more prehistoric sites in the county than Orkney, boasting the last clan battle in Scotland fought at Altimarlach, and, of course, sporting some of the best surf in Europe.

Last week I visited an important part of that unique Caithness fabric, Pulteney Distillery. Set up in 1826, it managed to continue to produce its water of life throughout the prohibition years and now has gone global. It is one of the biggest and most successful concerns in Caithness.

The only problem is that its single malt whisky is proving so popular that demand is threatening to outstrip current stocks - but then that is a problem worth having!

Prompted by a more than passing interest in its amber product, I wanted to explore the prospects for the local heating system fuelled by previously waste steam and hot water that should provide green credentials for the distillery and constant hot-water supplies for local homes. The Environment and Rural Development Committee's review of statutory instruments that regulate private water supplies and license abstraction from rivers and burns affects distilleries in particular.

So is Pulteney facing the challenges of tight regulation? Top marks are deserved.

Thanks to manager Fred Sinclair, whose enthusiasm and knowledge highlights yet another branch of Scottish cultural diversity, the worldwide success story of selling one of Scotland's treasured malt whiskies is in safe hands.

Fred originally comes from Sanday in Orkney and started work in the Scapa distillery near Kirkwall, after which he has served at Inver House outlets in Speyside and Wick.

With modern marketing and developing palates, sales of malt whiskies generally have soared and the huge Chinese market is only just opening up. So the prospects for well-marketed products like Old Pulteney depend on being able to make enough to meet market demands.

With a big surge in Scottish confidence we could raise a glass after the Holyrood elections next May and start to recycle the whisky revenues from Scottish stills for more tangible local needs. Add this to Scottish oil, an asset worth £170,000 for every man, woman and child in Scotland. This week the SNP leader, Alex Salmond, launched proposals in the House of Commons to repatriate oil and gas, and the revenues from the Scottish sector of the North Sea, to the Scottish Parliament. Now that would be worth much more than a second dram.

I was elected Highlands & Islands MSP in 2003. I am a member of the Parliament's Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee as well as the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee. I am also a historian, musician, author and traditional music festival organiser.
Scots, Gaelic and the Traditional Arts are core interests as are nuclear disarmament, affordable housing and saving consultant led services in the NHS.
I was born and educated in Glasgow, and attended Dundee University and Education College. As a former Modern Studies teacher much of my professional life was spent teaching at the Invergordon and Alness Academies as the Principal Teacher of Guidance. Since early retirement, or early ‘relifement’ as I like to call it, I have developed my historical training and skills by writing the book Plaids and Bandanas.
I have been a long time SNP activist and was a former District Councillor in Ross and Cromarty. I joined the SNP in 1966, was FSN President from 1970-1973 and have been a member of the SNP's National Council, Executive, and Cabinet.